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Presents Appeals at the 1996 Spring NABC Starring Joan Gerard . as the Chairman Alan LeBendig and Peggy Sutherlin . as the Co-Chairmen And the members of the NABC Appeals Committee . as Themselves With Your Editors and Hosts Copyright © 1996 by ACBL. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced or copied in any Eric & Rich form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including Kokish Colker photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system—without the written permission of a copyright owner; except that short passages may be quoted without written permission if for the purpose of review. CONTENTS Introduction .................................................... ii Preface ........................................................iii The Expert Panel ................................................ v Cases.......................................................... 1 Closing Remarks From the Expert Panelists ......................... 181 Closing Remarks From the Editors ................................ 184 The Panel’s Director and Committee Ratings ........................ 189 NABC Appeals Committee ...................................... 190 This casebook is dedicated to the memory of Howard Chandross: He will be missed. i INTRODUCTION PREFACE I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the National Appeals Making good Committee decisions is a lot like good detective work. It involves Committee to thank John Blubaugh for the tremendous effort and dedication he logic, deduction, inference, and judgement, not to mention good interviewing has exemplified over the years in compiling the ACBL’s Committee Decisions. skills. It also requires a familiarity with the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge Without his hard work and the work of many others including Frank Jewett III, and ACBL Regulations, as well as a healthy dose of Committee experience. Karen Lawrence, and Linda Weinstein we would not have been able to get this These casebooks have come a long way in providing us with a valuable record of project off the ground. We appreciate all that they have done. Committee actions to supplement our individual experiences, and expert commentary to help us evaluate and refine our judgment and perspective on In some ways Appeals were a disappointment in Philadelphia; 41 cases - ugh - applying what we know to actual cases. the same number we had in Cincinnati. We seem to be moving backwards. But the good news is that we have added some expert guidance and administrative No casebook, however, can impart the requisite reasoning skills to those who do skills to our committee. Eric Kokish served as Special Consultant to Appeals and not already possess them. We ask our better bridge players to serve on Appeals Richard Colker acted in the capacity of National Recorder, chaired many of our Committees because they already possess those skills, but that alone does not committees and worked with Eric on accurately reporting the Appeals cases in guarantee a good Committee person. One must also be open-minded, tactful, the Daily Bulletin. Together with Alan and Peggy they selected committees and persuasive, goal-oriented, disciplined and organized. A working knowledge of worked with the screening Directors, Peter Mollemet and Brian Moran. Linda the Laws and Regulations is crucial; a sense of humor and a lack of ego a must. Weinstein continued to be part of our team acting as a scribe, helping to compile the Appeals Book, sending out the cases to the commentators and helping to We can’t create good Committee people from those unsuited to the task, but we organize the responses. We are hopeful that our plan will receive Board approval can develop experience, judgment, and knowledge of the Laws and Regulations in Miami, and that this group will be able to work together to implement many in promising candidates. In these casebooks we try to provide a model for the new ideas for the improvement of the Appeals process. improving Committee member (does this sound like “the advancing player?”), a place to critique and refine their skills. But where these casebooks truly excel is Those of us who work with Appeals must remember that this is a job that would as a forum for the discussion and development of the philosophy and principles be best if it would go away and there would be no need to appeal a Director’s which underlie the appeal process. And it is to this end that we have chosen to ruling. There are some who believe that it would be best for a player to appeal, if devote a major portion of our efforts. necessary, to the Director in Charge, or to a designated “Appeals Director.” Obviously, there are also those who have a different opinion. However, this may A recurring theme in this casebook is the process of applying the following laws: well have certain advantages if there were a well-organized plan. The more that players can play the game without hassle, the more players that will want to play 1. Law 16 (Unauthorized Information) states: “Players are authorized to the game. base their actions on information from legal calls or plays and from mannerisms from opponents. To base action on other extraneous We hope you enjoy the new format of the ACBL Appeals Committee Decisions information may be an infraction of law.” Book. Our thanks to Eric Kokish and Richard Colker for the format and the 2. Law 16A (Extraneous Information from Partner) continues: “After a discussions of the issues affecting each case, and to Linda Weinstein for serving player makes available to his partner extraneous information that may as editorial assistant. suggest a call or play, as by means of . the partner may not choose from among logical alternative actions one that could reasonably have I am looking forward to seeing many of you in Miami. Thanks to all of you for been suggested over another by the extraneous information.” the time and effort you give to serving on National Appeals, and thanks to all the 3. Law 73F states: “When a violation of the Proprieties described in this experts who spent endless hours “serving on the 41 Committees” to make this law results in damage to an innocent opponent” then Law 73F1 (Player book possible. Acts on Unauthorized Information) provides that: “If the Director Joan Levy Gerard, Chairman determines that a player chose from among logical alternative actions one that could reasonably have been suggested over another by his partner’s remark, manner, tempo, or the like, he shall award an adjusted ii iii score . .” THE EXPERT PANEL 4. Law 12C2 (Assigned Score) then instructs: “When the Director awards an adjusted score in place of a result actually obtained after an Bart Bramley, 48, was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. He grew up in irregularity, the score is, for a non-offending side, the most favorable Connecticut and Boston and is a graduate of MIT. He currently resides in result that was likely had the irregularity not occurred, or, for an Chicago with his longtime companion Judy Wadas. He is a stock options trader offending side, the most unfavorable result that was at all probable. The at the CBOE. Bart is a sports fan (especially baseball and specifically the NY scores awarded to the two sides need not balance, and may be assigned Yankees), a golf enthusiast, enjoys word games and has been a Deadhead for either in matchpoints or by altering the total-point score prior to many years. He is proudest of his 1989 Reno Vanderbilt win and his matchpointing.” participation in the 1991 Bermuda Bowl. He also credits Ken Lebensold as an essential influence in his bridge development. Assigning an adjusted score (described in 4 above) requires three separate preliminary determinations. First, that an irregularity actually occurred (for Larry Cohen, 37, was born in New York. He is a graduate of S.U.N.Y. He example, in the case of a possible hesitation, it must be determined that the currently resides in Little Falls, New Jersey. He is a Bridge Professional and tempo was at variance with the previous auction, or with the pair’s normal author of two books that are both best sellers; To Bid or Not To Bid and tempo). Second, that there was subsequent damage to the innocent opponents. Following the Law. Larry is a Co-Director of the Bridge World Master Solver’s And third, that the damage was a direct consequence of the irregularity. Club. He enjoys golf in his spare time. He has won fifteen National Championships. Appeals Committees are faced with a multitude of fact patterns, and cases can vary widely in degree of difficulty. Nonetheless, it is this basic sequence of Ron Gerard, 52, was born in New York. He is a graduate of Harvard and assessments that provides the foundation for making good decisions. Michigan Law School (JD). He currently resides in White Plains, NY with his wife Joan (Chairman of the National Appeals Committee) where he is an We have introduced a new feature with this casebook which we hope will attorney. Ron is a college basketball fan and enjoys classical music and tennis. provide some additional helpful information. We’ve asked our panelists to He is proudest of winning both the Spingold and Blue Ribbon Pairs in 1981. provide two numerical ratings for each case: one for the Directors’ ruling and Each year from 1990 to 1995 he made it to at least the round of eight in the another for the Committee’s decision. Most panelists provided both ratings for Vanderbilt; he played in three finals (winning in Fort Worth, 1990) and one every case, and no case had more than two of them missing. (One panelist semi-final while playing only once on a professional team. declined to provide any ratings.) For each case mean ratings for the Directors and the Committee (averaged over only those panelists who provided ratings for Bobby Goldman, 57, was born in Philadelphia.

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